Thursday, October 16, 2008

Tevez : In Prospect of Losing Tevez to Madrid

Latest news from transfer rumour machine/newspaper Marca is that Real Madrid want Man Utd’s Carlos Tevez. You might be thinking that transfers between Man Utd and Real Madrid are unlikely in the wake of the Cristiano Ronaldo saga, but this one’s a little more complicated that that.

I don’t fully understand the situation, but seems Carlos Tevez is technically on loan at Man Utd and his registration is still owned by Kia Joorabchian’s Media Sports Investments. According to The Guardian’s translation of Marca’s story: “Manchester United must pay €37m (£28.8m) to MSI before January 30. If they don’t, Tevez will effectively be owned by MSI, and Real Madrid will set the wheels in motion to bring him to the Bernabeu next season. Bernd Schuster has made it clear that the signing of a world class striker must be a priority for next season,” continues the report. Even Sporting director Predrag Mijatovic agrees with him.

Following all the “third party ownership” uproar when Carlos Tevez played for West Ham (which is still going on) it seems the exact details of Carlos Tevez’s current registration situation are being kept out of the headlines.

As I understand it (which I possibly don’t) the FA approved the Tevez to Man Utd loan deal and it’s all above board. But it still sounds a lot like third party ownership to me (with MSI being the third party.) I’m sure the FA will be glad to see Tevez properly signed up and Kia Joorabchian out of the picture.

The question is: will Man Utd want to pay €37m for Tevez now they have Berbatov? Or will the prospect of losing Tevez to Madrid provide the club with some extra motivation to sign him permanently?